Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star
"Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" is a popular English lullaby. The lyrics are from an early-19th-century English poem by Jane Taylor, The Star. The poem, which is in couplet form, was first published in 1806 in Rhymes for the Nursery, a collection of poems by Taylor and her sister Ann. It is sung to the tune of the French melody "Ah! vous dirai-je, maman", which was published in 1761 and later arranged by several composers, including Mozart with Twelve Variations on "Ah vous dirai-je, Maman". The English lyrics have five stanzas, although only the first is widely known. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 7666. This song is usually performed in the key of C major. The song is in the public domain, and has many adaptations around the world. Origins The English lyrics were first written as a poem by Jane Taylor (1783–1824)M. Cryer, Love Me Tender: The Stories Behind the World's Best-loved Songs (Frances Lincoln, 2009), pp. 83–5. and published with the title "The Star" in Rhymes for the Nursery by Jane and her sister Ann Taylor (1782–1866) in London in 1806:I. Opie and P. Opie, The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes (Oxford University Press, 1951, 2nd edn., 1997), pp. 397–8. The lyrics from "The Star" were first published with the tune in The Singing Master: First Class Tune Book in 1838. Although before, when it was just a folk song, there were only 4 verses Lyrics The lyrics of the song are the text of the poem, with the first two lines of the entire poem repeated as a refrain after each stanza. For instance, the first stanza of the lyrics is: The first stanza of the song is typically as written, but further stanzas typically contain minor variations. Other text versions Additional variations exist such as from 1896 in Song Stories for the Kindergarten by Mildred J. Hill. A parody of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" titled "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Bat" is recited by the Mad Hatter in chapter seven of Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. An adaptation of the song, named "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Earth", was written by Charles Randolph Grean, Fred Hertz and Leonard Nimoy. It is included on Nimoy's first 1967 album Leonard Nimoy Presents Mr. Spock's Music from Outer Space, with him reciting the text as Spock explaining how the star-people wish upon an earth and so forth. As of October 2019, a version of the song uploaded to YouTube by the channel "Super Simple Songs - Kids Songs" has received over 1.2 billion views.Super Simple. "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star", YouTube, September 5, 2010, accessed November 30, 2018 A version using synonyms from Roget's Thesaurus exists.G. Hughes, A history of English words (Wiley-Blackwell, 2000), p. 40. The song can also be played as a singing game. .]] See also *List of nursery rhymes *"Ah! vous dirai-je, maman" * Little Star (The Elegants song) * "Alphabet song" * "Baa, Baa, Black Sheep" * Twinkling * Are you sleeping Notes External links * * * Audio segment from BBC Radio 4 Woman's Hour, Category:Children's songs Category:Lullabies Category:Traditional children's songs Category:United States National Recording Registry recordings Category:English nursery rhymes Category:Roud Folk Song Index songs Category:1806 poems Category:1838 songs Category:Songs based on poems